ATLANTIC CITY — The Saint Joseph’s Hawks have been on or around the bubble for over a month now, and it call comes down to tonight against a top-10 team.

FINAL: St. Joe’s 61, Xavier 53

Box score

The crowd continues to chant, right before it just stopped it felt like a soccer game.

Carr points his index finger to the sky and Calathes and Nivins chest-bumped each other. When Lunardi throws a fist-pump toward a fan in the stands, you start to get the feeling they are in. If Temple can pull off the win over Charlotte (tipoff at 9:02 p.m.), the Big 5’s 30-year streak of having a team in the Tournament will be intact.

0:16.4 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 61, Xavier 53

Ferguson fouls out, but it won’t matter. The Hawks start a chant “this is our house!” I don’t think they’re rich enough to own the Palestra, the Fieldhouse and a place on the shore as well.

0:31.0 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 61, Xavier 51

Jackson is whistled for the block, and Calathes shoots two from the line. Wow, he’s money on the first, but misses the second, and it’s tipped all the way out to Williamson, and Calathes is fouled again.

He makes numero uno this time, hitting the second, and the crowd erupts. The Muskies miss a three, and Ferguson corrals the board. Calathes throws his arms up in celebration, this one is over!

0:54.7 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 56, Xavier 51

Calathes takes the inbounds pass down the sideline for a dunk. Burrell tries to foul Calathes on his way there telling the ref exactly that: “I tried to foul him!”

Raymond makes two free throws, and this time the Musketeers trap Calathes once he crosses the midcourt line, and he has to burn a timeout.

1:12 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 54, Xavier 47

It’s electric, the whole crowd is standing and chanting now. Nivins fouls Duncan though, and the St. Joe’s contingency gets quiet. Nivins has fouled out, and the Hawk faithful applaud his effort.

Duncan connects on both, so it’s down to five. Xavier defends St. Joe’s well on the inbounds pass, and after getting trapped, Carr calls timeout. The Hawks have two left, Xavier has none.

1:33 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 54, Xavier 47

The Xavier band plays the song “I’m a believer,” and it may have helped - Carr throws an atrocious pass that Burrell takes coast-to-coast, and Ferguson misses. St. Joe’s tournament hopes lie in these final 93 seconds. While I’m not sure they’re a better team than Temple, the Hawks couldn’t be left out after winning two against Xavier, especially with all of the bubble teams that have lost.

2:32 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 54, Xavier 45

Love grabs an offensive rebound after a miss by, who else, Duncan, and puts it in for two. Nivins has to be careful - he’s got four fouls. He gets hit, though, and heads to the line as both teams are now in the double-bonus and are shooting two.

Williamson and Lidzius are the defensive subs for the Hawks, with Ferguson and Govens as the offensive counterparts.

Xavier needs some plays, and fast, but after Burrell barely misses a three, Duncan cleans up.

3:49 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 53, Xavier 41

Xavier continues to throw up bricks, this is shocking. Williamson just barely misses a dagger with a corner three, but Love, the Abington Friends product (he played along with Penn’s Aron Cohen in the Philly suburban Quaker school), loses it out of bounds.

Nivins is called for a walk, and Xavier takes over. Lidzius is still in for the Hawks, he’s played alright so far.

5:09 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 53, Xavier 41

Brown throws down a monstrous dunk, but his team is still down by nine. He and Duncan miss threes, and Calathes and Nivins widen the lead by hitting 3-of-4 on 1-and-1s.

Duncan has Nivins in his grill, and can’t finish the bank.

7:44 2nd Half, St. Joe’s 51, Xavier 39

My apologies, the internet decided to stop working for the moment. The Hawks had built up a 15-point lead on a 15-0 run that started before the half, but the Musketeers are clawing back slowly.

Halftime, St. Joe’s 27, Xavier 20

Williamson misses a tough layup to beat the shot clock. Duncan continues to struggle mightily, missing an open three. He forces Nivins into a a bad shot, though.

After Xavier patiently turns it over, Calathes makes a textbook left-handed and-1 layup, and the Hawks are on a 7-0 run.

The Muskies lose control, get it back, but commit a shot-clock violation, and the Hawks call timeout with 13.7 left in the half. On the final play, the Musketeers go zone, but Calathes punishes them with a three from the corner, and the Hawks go up 10 at the half.

2:41 1st Half, St. Joe’s 24, Xavier 20

Carr dribbles around for a while, but then finds Lidzius for a layup. In response, Burrell tosses a nice alley-oop to Brown. It’s kind of ugly, but it’s been an exciting game so far.

Calathes finally hits an open three, and Josh Duncan, the leading scorer for the Musketeers, airballs a double-clutch layup. Calathes then gets whistled for his second foul, and it looks like a bad call. He agrees.

Carr dribbles it off of someone’s leg, and Xavier ties it up in transition. He then draws a reach-in, and Ferguson takes back the lead with a jumper. Carr now almost loses it, but finds Ferguson for a tough layup. The crowd is now real loud, and nearly erupts as Carr’s three goes halfway down, but then out.

Duncan misses an easy shot, and Calathes bricks a long, but wide-open three. The crowd keeps getting bigger - the stadium is about two-thirds full. It also looks more empty than it is because there are a few sections of seats that are a good 20 feet behind the basket, but still parallel to the benches. I’m not sure if they even sell tickets to those sections.

7:50 1st Half, St. Joe’s 15, Xavier 14

The Hawks are running at Xavier on the perimeter, forcing it to put up mid-range jumpers. Meanwhile, the Hawks continue to brick jumpers, as Govens’ three goes in-and-out.

Bad news for St. Joe’s - Nivins picks up his second foul (team’s second), and Arvydas Lidzius, who has played alright, comes in.

The Hawks are missing just about everything now, but Williamson gets to the line, trying to maintain the lead. He makes two and once again the Musketeers throw it away.

Calathes is getting nothing done on the offensive end, and he now fouls Love for an and-1 that pulls Xavier to within one.

Lavender makes perhaps his first good play of the game, hitting a bank over Williamson. The teams trade turnovers, and the low-scoring game continues.

The Xavier cheerleaders do the the thing where they run onto the court and spell out X-A-V-I-E-R while sliding on th ground. It’s like Soulja Boy - cool the first couple times you see it but gets old fast.

11:45 1st Half, St. Joe’s 11, Xavier 6

Lavender throws up what I believe was an alley-oop, but no one went for it, and it glances harmlessly off the basket. Then, the solid jump-shooting Ferguson nails a 16-footer. Burrell blows by Garrett Williamson, but nearly turns it over. He’s one of six Musketeers averaging double-figures.

After an offensive foul, Nivins spins for a two, but Anderson answers in the lane. The Nivins-Ferguson duo inside is killing the top seed. Williamson grabs a steal, but his first dribble takes him out of bounds.

15:45 1st Half, St. Joe’s 5, Xavier 2

I’m starting to feel a buzz about the place for the first time. The St. Joe’s fans start their fake fight song, “O when the Hawk, goes marching in…”

The teams are out on the floor, and we’re ready to go.

Nivins grabs the tip, and then seals Love beautifully, taking the lob from Govens in for two. The Hawks, switching on screens, force Lavender into an airball over Calathes and the crowd loves it. Nivins misses a shot, but throws a shot out of bounds

Lavender bricks a layup over Ferguson, but Anderson cuts to the hoop to put Xavier on the board. Neither team is hitting anything, as Calathes misses a three.

Calathes hits Nivins, and he beasts Dante Jackson for an and-1. Jackson forces Ferguson into a jump ball though, and after the whistle the forward nails a bank while sitting on his behind.

The crowd is as big as I have ever seen at Boardwalk Hall. That doesn’t say much, but both these teams travel well, and it looks more than half full.

_____
Xavier had a bit of trouble with 9-seed Dayton, but the conference’s top team and NCAA Tourney lock is going to be a really tough out. The Musketeers are 27-5, with two of those losses coming against the Big 5 - at Temple and at St. Joe’s just over a week ago. The rubber match will be a good one - the Hawks have absolutely blown away their inferior opponents in 12-seed Fordham and 4th-seeded Richmond.

The fans are still filing in with eight minutes until tipoff, and it’s only about a third full, though the Hawks’ student section is pretty full

Neither team is on the floor with six minutes to go, so it’s quiet. A fan yells to Joe Lunardi, the Hawks’ radio analyst slash ESPN’s bracketologist “Last four in!?” and Joe humors him by saying ‘yes’. Hawks finally come back in with five minutes before tipoff, and the Muskeys follow with only 2:30 on the clock. The student section chants its coach’s name as Phil Martelli finally comes onto the floor, giving the fans a little wave. The crowd is getting a little bigger now, Martelli promised it would be sold out…

Starters

Xavier:
G Drew Lavender
G Stanley Burrell
G C.J. Anderson
F Derrick Brown
F Jason Love

St. Joe’s:
G Tasheed Carr
G Darrin Govens
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 6:20 pm and is filed under City, Game Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.